Can you remember a moment when you experienced effortless focus while doing something that you were completely absorbed, that time stood still? Athletes call it being in “The Zone.” Psychologists have studied this mental state which they call flow. Csikszentmihalyi, author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience described “The flow experience has the potential to make life more rich, intense, and meaningful; it is good because it increases the strengths and complexity of the self.”
Flow is defined as the intense experiential involvement in moment-to-moment activity, which can be either physical or mental. Attention is fully invested in the task at hand and the person functions at her or his fullest capacity.
If you keep getting interrupted, you cannot achieve the state of deep concentration needed to be in flow. My 3-step approach to achieve flow:
1. Quiet the mind
The subconscious mind is pre-occupied about tasks we have not completed. It works in the background to help us plan tasks. Being aware that attention is limited and finite, I write down and schedule what’s on my mind, so I don’t have to worry about remembering. I know if I don’t, it will deplete my attention and energy. When you write down a thought, you extract and capture it on paper. This process stops your mind from allocating attention and energy to that thought.
2. Remove distractions
Being constantly interrupted is a sure-fire way to kill flow. Our brain does not work well with distractions. I’m sure you are familiar with the buzz from your smartphone that triggers you to check your screen. Whenever you encounter an interruption, your brain must disengage with what it was doing and engage the distraction. After the distraction, it takes time for the brain to re-engage back in what you were doing. This process requires effort and is taxing to the brain. The conditions in my environment play a significant part to get in a state of flow. I optimise my environment by taking care of anything that might distract me. I switch my smartphone on airplane mode, clear my desk of things that distract me, quit email applications and adjust the thermostat in the room.
3. Focus is key to achieve flow
I take a moment to anticipate my needs. I drink water to stay hydrated, take a deep breath in and exhale. The deep breathing primes the brain to be in the present moment. I stretch my body to increase my energy levels. I concentrate completely on the task at hand. To drop in a state of flow, it’s crucial to be able to focus your attention and be completely absorbed by the activity.
Nine elements you need to achieve flow
Csikszentmihalyi has identified nine elements required for the flow experience:
1) balance of challenges vs. skills- If the challenge is too demanding compared to your skill level, you get frustrated. If it is too easy, you get bored. In a flow experience, you feel engaged by the challenge, but not overwhelmed because of an equal balance between the skill level and the challenge.
2) merging of action and awareness- the mind wanders, you often think about something that happened or might happen. In flow, you are completely immersed by what you do. Your thought and action are combined.
3) clear goals- a clear purpose and good grasp of what you want to accomplish
4) unambiguous feedback- clear and immediate evaluation of the process
5) complete concentration- if you want to experience flow, you need to be in complete concentration. In other words, you exclude unnecessary distractions and focus on the relevant activity
6) loss of self-consciousness- the experience of letting go of the self. When you are immersed in an activity, you feel connected to the activity and the self disappears.
7) sense of control- an absolute sense of personal control. You know what has to be done and you just do it.
8) transformation of time- when you are intensely engaged in the moment you become unaware of the passage of time.
9) activity for the sake of activity- the activity in itself is intrinsically rewarding
Conclusion
Being in flow enhances the momentary experience we live and contributes to our happiness and success. Flow can boost productivity while injecting a sense of enjoyment to the activities you do. You can use flow to learn a new skill, in sports or even your workplace. Achieving a state of flow enables a person to do extraordinary things.
